Labour MP pulled before chief whip for inviting 'Russian spy' to tea in the Commons

A senior MP has received a warning from Downing Street after MI5 discovered that he was holding meetings with a suspected Russian spy.

Andrew MacKinlay, a Labour member of the powerful Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, was carpeted by Government Chief Whip Geoff Hoon after the intelligence services reported that he had tea with the agent at the House of Commons.

The man, Alexander Polyakov, works as a counsellor at the Russian Embassy in London but is thought to report back to the SVR - the infamous agency once known as the KGB.

Watch out: Andrew MacKinlay MP was warned by Chief Whip Geoff Hoon that he was being 'targeted by a Russian spy'

In classic spy-thriller fashion, British agents followed Mr Polyakov as he headed to Parliament for his rendezvous. After alarmed MI5 chiefs contacted Downing Street, Mr Hoon summoned Mr MacKinlay to warn him that he was 'being targeted by a Russian spy' and that it 'would not look good if it came out'.

Undeterred, Mr MacKinlay continued to meet Mr Polyakov at locations around London and put down a series of parliamentary questions on Russian matters.

In the two months from July last year, when the Commons meeting took place, the MP placed six questions about Russia. In one, he asked Home Secretary Jacqui Smith why Britain had granted political asylum to Boris Berezovsky (the exiled enemy of Russian PM Vladimir Putin), who had been close to Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko, assassinated in London by poison in 2006.

His other questions concerned the number of accredited Russian diplomats, extradition provisions between the two countries and the circumstances surrounding last summer's deportation of a Russian suspected of plotting to murder Mr Berezovsky.

'We have never discussed Russian emigres or businessmen, just international affairs... it's part of my job,' said Mr MacKinlay, currently on a week-long parliamentary visit to Kazakhstan.

'Hoon said to me, "In my previous job [Defence Secretary] I met people... you should realise you are being targeted by a Russian spy," adding that it wouldn't look good if it was publicised.'

Asked if he thought Mr Polyakov was a spy, Mr MacKinlay said: 'Not any more than any other foreign diplomat is.'

However, a senior Government source told The Mail on Sunday that Mr Polyakov was believed to be one of the more senior Russian agents in the UK. 'We were doing Mr MacKinlay a favour by warning him,' the source said.

The 'tea at the Commons' came at a sensitive time for Anglo-Russian relations - it was the height of Britain's row with Moscow over Andrei Lugovoi, prime suspect in the killing of Litvinenko, which led to the expulsion of four Russian diplomats that same July.

One of Russia's richest men: Oleg Deripaska is said to have wanted to use Andrew MacKinlay in a High Court battle. His partner, Polina, is close with Chelsea FC's owner Roman Abramovich's partner, Daria Zhukova (far left)

In a further, bizarre twist it has been claimed that Mr MacKinlay was targeted by aides of a Russian oligarch as a 'stooge' for use in a High Court battle. According to a report in the Bulgarian newspaper Standart, pro-Kremlin advisers to Russia's richest man, Oleg Deripaska, are said to have wanted to deploy him against Michael Cherney, who is suing Mr Deripaska for £1.5billion.

The report claimed aides to Mr Deripaska - who is worth £14billion - drafted a propaganda campaign two months before the 'tea', which included 'mobilising' Mr MacKinlay to help to block Mr Cherney - worth £2billion - from settling in the UK.